Reinforced golf club head

ABSTRACT

A reinforced golf club head includes a reinforcing plate, a curved sole plate, a striking plate and a crown plate. The reinforcing plate is welded to the sole plate in a lip area adjacent to the striking plate before the sole plate, striking plate and crown plate are joined together, so as to strengthen the sole plate and hence allow the lip area to withstand a relative large stress resulted from impact produced during striking a ball.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention

[0002] The present invention relates to a reinforced golf club head and,more particularly, to a reinforced golf club head in which a reinforcingplate is welded to a curved sole plate in a lip area adjacent to astriking plate before the sole plate, the striking plate and an crownplate are welded together, so as to strengthen the lip area of the soleplate.

[0003] 2. Description of Related Art

[0004] A golf club head of prior art is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. Itincludes a curved sole plate 91, a striking plate 92, a crown plate 93and a sleeve 94. The sole plate 91 is made into a desired shaped anddesigns at its bottom. The striking plate 92 is grooved to improve thefriction and accuracy for striking a ball, and the sleeve 94 is providedfor receiving a shaft (not shown). These elements 91, 92, 93 and 94 areusually joined together by argon-arc welding, a means which is simple,inexpensive and suitable for mass production.

[0005] The argon-arc welded head generally comply with a standardstrength and resistance against impact. However, impact stresses arerepeatedly transmitted from the striking plate 92 to the sole plate 91,especially to its lip area 911 adjacent to the striking plate 92, duringstriking a ball. After the club head strikes a certain number of times,microcracks will appear in the lip area 911 of the sole plate 91.

[0006] Particularly, such a club head of a super-large size is usuallymuch thinner in its thickness of the sole plate 91, striking plate 92and crown plate 93 and so it is more possible to result in micro-crackin the lip area 911 of its sole plate. These microcracks degenerate theclub head in its durability as well as its striking property.

[0007] Therefore, there is really a need to strengthen the lip area 911of the sole plate 91.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0008] The object of the present invention is to provide a reinforcedgolf club head in which at least one reinforcing plate is welded to acurved sole plate in a lip area adjacent to a striking plate, so as tostrengthen the area and consequently improve durability of the clubhead.

[0009] Another object of the present invention is to provide areinforced golf club head in which the reinforcing plate(s) may beprovided with one or more holes of a geometrical or an irregular shape,so as to lighten the club head as well as to strength it.

[0010] To achieve the aforementioned objects, the present inventionprovides a reinforced golf club head comprising a reinforcing plate, acurved sole plate, a striking plate and a crown plate. The reinforcingplate is welded to the sole plate in a lip area adjacent to the strikingplate before the sole plate, striking plate and crown plate are joinedtogether, so as to strengthen the sole plate and hence allow the liparea to withstand a relative large stress resulted from impact producedduring striking a ball.

[0011] Other objects, advantages and novel features of this inventionwill become more apparent from the following detailed description whentaken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0012]FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a golf club head in prior art;

[0013]FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a curved sole plate and astriking plate of the club head of FIG. 1 welded together;

[0014]FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of a reinforced golf clubhead in accordance with the present invention;

[0015]FIG. 4 is a top view showing a reinforcing plate of the club headof FIG. 3 welded to a curved sole plate;

[0016]FIG. 5 is a top view showing a striking plate of the club head ofFIG. 3 welded to the reinforcing plate and the curved sole plate;

[0017]FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the club head of FIG. 3, showingthe plates welded together; and

[0018]FIG. 7 is an enlarged perspective view of the reinforcing plate ofthe club head of FIG. 3.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

[0019] The present invention is now to be described thereinafter by wayof a preferred embodiment in reference with drawings.

[0020]FIG. 3 shows an exploded perspective view of a golf club head inaccordance with the present invention. The club head includes at leastone reinforcing plate 1, a curved sole plate 2, a striking plate 3, acrown plate 4 and a sleeve 5.

[0021] The reinforcing plate 1 is a metal piece preferably made of thesame material as the curved sole plate 2. The sole plate 2 can be madeinto a desired shape and design, such as by punching. The striking plate3 may be grooved, as shown in FIG. 6, to improve the friction andaccuracy striking a ball. The plates 1, 2, 3 and 4 are joined togetherto form a hollow body, i.e., a main body of the club head and the sleeve5 is joined to the hollow body for receiving a shaft (not shown).

[0022] FIGS. 4 to 6 show sequential procedures of the plates 1, 2, 3 and4 to be joined together.

[0023] The reinforcing plate 1 is firstly joined by welding, preferablyspot welding, to an inner face of the curved sole plate 2 in a lip area21 adjacent to the striking plate 3, and so the reinforcing plate 1 canbe placed flat on and joined to the sole plate 2 without being added bya raised welded seam 31 appearing on the boundary between the sole andstriking plates 2 and 3. To be short, the reinforcing plate 1 is weltedto the inner face of the sole plate 2 in the lip area 21 before theother plates 2, 3 and 4 are welded together to form the club head.

[0024] The resulting club head is strengthened in the lip area 21, whichnow may withstand a relative large stress resulted from the impactproduced during striking a ball. Preferably, the reinforcing plate 1 isarranged and welded so that a side edge thereof extends along orslightly projects from an outside edge of the curved sole plate 2confronting with the striking plate 3. This arrangement makes thereinforcing plate 1, sole plate 2 and striking plate 3 easier to bewelded closely together by a same welded seam 31.

[0025] In a club head of a super-large size, the sole plate 2, strikingplate 3 and crown plate 4 are often required to be made as thin aspossible, on the condition of no reduction of the total weight of thewhole head, in order to enable a striking ball to travel as far aspossibly. In addition to any club head of normal size, the reinforcingplate 1 is more preferably provided in such a super-large head tostrengthen the thinner sole plate 2 and to compensate for the amount ofreduced weight caused by the thinner plates 2, 3 and 4.

[0026] A durability test has been made for super-large heads (184 gramsin total weight and 1 mm thick in their sole plates) with and withoutsuch a reinforcing plate 1. Micro-cracks are appeared in the lip area ofthe sole plate without such a reinforcing plate approximately afterstruck 1500 times, but struck 2600 times for a lip area with such areinforcing plate. The test shows that the reinforcing plate 1 cansignificantly strengthen the sole plate 2 of a club head, especially oneof a super-large size, and protect its lip area from micorcracking. Inother words, the reinforcing plate 1 provides an improved durability forthe inventive club head.

[0027] Referring to FIG. 7, the reinforcing plate 1 can be provided withone or more holes 11 if necessary, in order to avoid an excessive totalweight of the club head. The hole(s) 11 may have either a geometrical oran irregular shape.

[0028] Referring again to FIGS. 2 and 5, the inventive club headincludes a reinforcing plate 1 which is welded to the curved sole plate2 in the lip area 21 before the other plates 2, 3 and 4 are weldedtogether. In contrast to the weakness of the sole plate 91 of the priorart club head shown in FIG. 2, the inventive club head illustrated inFIG. 5 not only has an improved strength and durability in its soleplate 2 but also is simple enough to be manufacture.

[0029] While the principles of this invention have been disclosed inconnection with a specific embodiment, it should be understood by thoseskilled in the art that these descriptions are not intended to limit thescope of the invention, and that any modification and variation withoutdeparting the spirit of the invention is intended to be covered by thescope of this invention defined only by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A reinforced golf club head, comprising: a curvedsole plate; a striking plate joined to said curved sole plate; a crownplate joined to said curved sole plate and said striking plate; saidcurved sole plate having a lip area adjacent to said striking plate; andat least one reinforcing plate joined to said curved sole plate in saidlip area to strengthen said curved sole plate.
 2. The reinforced golfclub head as claimed in claim 1, wherein said reinforcing plate isjoined to said curved sole plate in said lip area before said curvedsole plate, said striking plate and said crown plate are joinedtogether.
 3. The reinforced golf club head as claimed in claim 1,wherein said reinforcing plate has at least one hole defined therein. 4.The reinforced golf club head as claimed in claim 3, wherein said holehas a geometrical shape.
 5. The reinforced golf club head as claimed inclaim 3, wherein said hole has an irregular shape.
 6. The reinforcedgolf club head as claimed in claim 1, wherein said golf club head has asuper-large size.
 7. The reinforced golf club head as claimed in claim1, wherein said reinforcing plate has a side edge extending along anoutside edge of said curved sole plate confronting with said strikingplate.
 8. The reinforced golf club bead as claimed in claim 1, whereinsaid reinforcing plate has a side edge slightly projecting from anoutside edge of said curved sole plate confronting with said strikingplate.
 9. The reinforced golf club head as claimed in claim 1 furtherincluding a sleeve for receiving a shaft.